How to Spend 100 Dollars in Phnom Penh

Thursday, December 10, 2009

This is the first foreign country that I’ve visited where the ATMs actually spit out US Dollars. Apparently they have little faith in their own currency, the riel (at writing, approximately 4,100R=1US). Maybe it’s a convenience thing, who wants to carry 280,000R to the grocery store?

If I thought Siem Reap was crowded and congested, it’s because I had not yet seen Phnom Penh. People walk in the streets… why? Because the tuk tuks, cars, and cycles and stores are all parked on the sidewalks. Crossing the street is tricky business. No one stops, but they will simply weave around you. It is also common to see a family of four on a Vespa-style scooter.

Still, Phnom Penh (I hesitate to abbreviate) is an Asian city, much like other Asian cities in developing Asian countries, with one horrific difference: it was the epicenter of the Khmer Rouge in the late 70’s. In 4 years, Pol Pot and his KR cronies wiped out a third of the Cambodian population in a genocidal frenzy that has not been seen since the Third Reich. Apparently, Pol Pot did not play nice with intelligencia – his main targets were people that were educated, leaving undereducated people to follow his every whim. And, why are most of the laborers in Cambodia women? Because 70% of the population are women, the imbalance created during the bloodbath.

This atrocity is still fresh in the hearts and minds of these people. While teenagers are doing teenage things, like their hair and nails and stylin’, there is an entire generation of middle-aged adults simply missing in action. I brought 100 dollars with me in one dollar bills: within one morning, I had handed them out to children and landmine victims.

You might think that this place is destitute and impoverished – it is not. There are plenty of Toyotas and Lexus, a few Cadillacs, some very fine hotels and homes, and a lot of building going on. There are new school buildings all around town (Pol Pot destroyed schools, so they all had to be rebuilt). The airport is beautiful, and unique in that there are no walls. Security is provided by – a moat!

So, without further ado, here is my way of spending 100 bucks in Phnom Penh:

Take a walk around Wat Phnom :$0

Walk down Sisowath Cay and see the juncture of the Tonle Sap and Mekong Rivers:$0

Buy a bottle of water from a street kid (make sure its factory sealed):$1

Practice english with every kid that comes up to you.  Here is the routine:

Hello!  What's your name?  My name is < >? Where do you come from?  How old are you?  I am < >.  Then do the same thing with the kid next to him.

Hire a TukTuk driver to drive you around town for the rest of the day:$20

Visit the Toul Sleng Genocide museum:$5 (2 for entrance, 3 for guidebook)

Visit the Choeung Ek “Killing Fields”:$3





Stop at the Cambodia Light Children’s Center (orphanage). Take a tour. Hop back into your TukTuk and go to the local market. Let your guide pick out the things that the kids need. On this trip we purchased:

Toothpaste

Toothbrushes

Diapers

Soap

Antibiotic cream

Shampoo

Rice

Fruit

A couple of small toys and hair thingies for the girls

For 73 children, the bill was $70, the experience was priceless.

You might have one dollar left. Give it to someone who needs it.


It will take several generations for this country to recover from the evils of the KR. As “Rat” said earlier this week, “If you kill all the smart ones, only the stupid ones are left.” Those were his words, I might have padded them a bit.

Now, here I sit in opulent luxury in what is probably the finest hotel room I’ve ever stayed in. The contrast is hard to deal with. Genocide is bad enough, but now is now and the future is in the hands of those kids living in that squalid sewer they call an orphanage. This profound experience could be a life-changer, definitely way up on my ‘world experience’ list… but I have spent my last emotion for today.

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